{"id":21563,"date":"2022-08-17T07:33:27","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T11:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21563"},"modified":"2022-08-17T07:39:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T11:39:51","slug":"21563","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21563","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7PBysTjztCU\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stay Where the Pain Is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard teaches about the trustworthy authority that belongs to those who have <strong>stood with and \u201cheld\u201d the suffering of their lives and the world\u2014rather than fled and avoided it. Jesus and Mary model such \u201cstaying power\u201d<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus on the cross and Mary standing near him are powerful witnesses to transformative spirituality. They return no hostility, hatred, accusations, or malice directed at them. They <strong>hold the suffering until it becomes resurrection! That\u2019s the core mystery of Christianity.<\/strong> It often takes our whole lives to begin to comprehend this.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, our <strong>natural instinct is trying to fix pain, to control it, or even, foolishly, attempting to understand it.<\/strong> The ego insists on understanding. That\u2019s why Jesus praises a certain quality even more than love, and he calls it\u00a0<em><strong>faith<\/strong><\/em><strong>. It\u2019s the ability to stand in liminal space, to stand on the threshold, to hold contraries, until we are moved by grace to a much deeper level and a much larger frame. <\/strong>Our private pain does not take center stage, but is a mystery shared with every act of bloodshed and every tear wept since the beginning of time. Our pain is not just our own. The normal mind can\u2019t deal with that. That\u2019s why mature religion always teaches <strong>some form of contemplation\u2014to break our addiction to this egoic, disconnected thinking<\/strong>. [1]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>CAC friend Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis reflects on a friend\u2019s wise counsel shared in a time of need. <strong>\u201cStay where the pain is,<\/strong>\u201d she said:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once, mourning the toughness of 2020\u2014a year marked with political upheaval, racial violence, the isolation and death from a pandemic, raging environmental fires, and the fire that took my sanctuary\u2014I was feeling very low and frankly so weighed down with grief, I didn\u2019t really know how to move forward. I kept throwing myself into work, running fast to do something about the pain. But, ever wise, [my friend] Lyn said: \u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>\u201cWait, stay right there. Stay where the pain is, where the suffering is, where the struggle is. Stay there. That\u2019s where it\u2019s going to come. The insight. The knowing. The wisdom. Right there, Jacqui. It\u2019s not here yet, but it\u2019s coming. And when it comes, I\u2019ll midwife it with you. It will come, we will do it together. Just wait for it. It will come.\u201d . . .\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br><em><strong>Right where you are, in the hurt and sorrow, that\u2019s right where the insight is, that\u2019s where the answer is, that\u2019s where the wisdom is. The transformation is there, the rebirth is ther<\/strong>e. And <strong>you\u2019re not alone. Your friend, your lover, your family, your helper\u2014someone from your posse will midwife it with you.<\/strong> <strong>The healing will come, and you will emerge, shaped in the merciful womb of the fiercest love.<\/strong> The pain of birth is excruciating. But someone who loves you knows how to reach in and grab you and hold on to you until you make it through. <strong>You\u2019ll emerge lighter, less encumbered, ready for new stories, transformed by old ones.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-4-500x355.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21565\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-4-500x355.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-4-300x213.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-4-768x545.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-4.png 1606w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stay Where the Pain Is Father Richard teaches about the trustworthy authority that belongs to those who have stood with and \u201cheld\u201d the suffering of their lives and the world\u2014rather than fled and avoided it. Jesus and Mary model such \u201cstaying power\u201d:\u00a0 Jesus on the cross and Mary standing near him are powerful witnesses to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21563"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21567,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21563\/revisions\/21567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}